Bring Me To Life : A Continuation
by I Got Tired of Waiting

Part III :: Epilogue :: And Lead It Back Home
Ron and Hermione

Glad to be home, Ron and Hermione lounged on their favourite sofa by the fire, their feet propped up on ancient poufs, hot cups of tea in their hands. From the moment they'd arrived, some of the heaviness left them like tension eased by a hot bath.

Settling deeper in the cushions, Ron glanced at Hermione. "Colin surprised me a bit, he was less... humourless than I expected."

Hermione chuckled before answering, "Oh, I'm certain the castle won't let him be too staid. Remember what happened to Severus the first few years?"

"Yeah, who could forget Severus waking up in his bed on the roof."

"Or the three broken noses when he collided with all the walls the castle erected. You remember how he walked."

"Remember how Harry's eyes would gleam whenever he watched Severus walk?"

Hermione chuckled at the memory; she could hardly forget the sensual stride herself. While they silently missed their friends, the sorrow still fresh, still raw, it wasn't the only thing they remembered; they still had unfinished business of their own and the previous week had left them with other things to think about.

Ron sat on the edge of the bed waiting impatiently. He didn't want to be here, but Hermione, sitting placidly in the chair by the fire, had insisted. And as usual, she got her way. He'd never been able to resist her; why should he start now?

He knew why he was here, the reason he didn't want to be was because he already knew the answers to the questions Hermione wanted answered. And he knew they weren't good.

Ron was ill and had been for quite some time. He didn't know why this should come as such a surprise to Hermione, but it had. He thought she forgot sometimes that they were 127 years old. Old was old and the ending of life was a bit easier to take now than it would have been years ago, so he really didn't understand why she was getting so upset about it.

A few years back, he'd had a couple of bad turns, the pain eating his insides. He'd ended up in the infirmary here where Seth took care of him. Seth had told him he could try to cure it and using magic and potions he'd made it go away.

Harry and Severus had stayed with him while Seth worked his wonders. With their biting humour and incessant bickering, they'd distracted him from the bitter potions, the agony as the spells ate away at the thing trying to devour him. He sometimes felt like a Ron Smorgasbord with an all-you can-eat-sign hanging off his chest.

Cancer, Seth had said, the Muggles call it cancer. And it was gone.

Then two years ago, he'd been with Harry in Diagon Alley looking for a gift for Hermione for her birthday. She'd always insisted she was too old for birthdays, carrying on so much that one year he'd decided to skip it. He would never, ever, repeat that mistake again. They'd been in a Goblin gem shop looking at some pretty stone rings when the pain had hit him.

Doubling over, he would have fallen had Harry not caught him. Harry got them out of there quickly and once out in the street, with a surge of raw power, managed to Apparate the two of them straight into the infirmary at Hogwarts.

Ron was amazed through his pain and Harry, smiling ruefully, had said, "It's not impossible to do, just difficult. Besides, the castle likes me better." Ron chuckled appreciatively and then choked as a fresh wave struck him.

Severus had come down, demanding to know what had happened; the Wards had been rippled and he'd such a headache from repairing them and... He stopped when he saw a pained Ron and an apologetic Harry. With no one else around, he nodded and touched Harry's cheek, saying something to him Ron couldn't hear because it was inside them. He then gently kissed Harry and strode back out the room, his robes billowing behind him. Intently watching his retreat, Harry sighed and turned to Ron, saying it was his one weakness.

Seth had examined him, giving him the verdict he was dreading. It was back, worse than before.

"Dad, you need to retire and take it easy. You'll heal faster and have a better chance of remission if you'll just slow down. I love you; however, you're not a young man, slow down... I'd like you to be around for a long time more."

So he'd slowed down, but despite Hermione nagging him, he didn't quit. And the pain went away as did the illness.

Now he was here. Easily ignored most of the time, the pain this time wasn't as sharp, but it was persistent. And growing. Hermione was certain it was back and, truth be told, so did he. Only what he wasn't telling her was that he thought this was the last time he would be suffering from it.

Seth returned to the room. Hermione was half out of her chair when he motioned her to sit back down.

"Mum, Dad. I'm so sorry. It's quietly spread to a point where I'm not certain I can heal it. I can give you a different regimen of potions that may kill it... or not. I don't know; we can only try. But I have others I want to give you that will, at the very least, mitigate the pain."

The three of them had held each other for a long while, Hermione surprisingly dry-eyed. Ron supposed that with the double funerals and the Memorial Services, she was all cried out. And under normal circumstances, he might have been right--to a certain extent. Hermione was cried out, but she was also madder than hell.

"I'm thinking," Hermione said, unconsciously using Harry's turn of phrase, "Colin and Dana will do well. I suspect they'll adopt the entire school as their family. He's so organized, she's such a softy under that serene exterior and with no children of their own... she'll do well with the younger ones. They start so young now at six."

"Well, it was necessary, as was continuing the students there until after University. All the schools had to change. It was a sad day they closed Oxford. I miss that old place, but we could no longer stay there with all the protests and such. Severus planned Hogwarts' expansion well."

"Speaking of plans, when are you retiring?" Hermione asked with deceptive mildness.

Not fooled for an instant, Ron replied, "Well, with the Wards in place, and people being more careful in their travels, we're less busy. All our efforts recently have been focused on making certain the Muggle technology doesn't find a way to penetrate the Wards; we're continuously developing new techniques to spy on them without getting caught. I should be able to step down soon. Which is fine by me; I'm so very tired of it all."

"Set a day," Hermione said.

"It's not that simple, love. It will take a while to train a replacement, then there's the--"

"Ronald Malfoy-Granger-Weasley..." Hermione warned, her eyes narrowed dangerously.

The fierceness filling her face put him to mind of a day when she'd kneed Seamus in the balls. Ron was rather fond of his balls and had it on recent good authority that Hermione was, too; however, he wasn't sufficiently convinced at this particular moment to risk that she was as fond of them now as she once had been; she'd used his full name... Ouch!

"Yes, dear?" he asked innocently.

She looked ready to kill. There goes my balls, he thought.

"Ron, If I Have To Go Through One More... Turn... With You I Swear I Will Use Your Guts For Garters!"

My, she's really upset. She's magnificent when she's upset... unless of course, she's upset with me.

"Oh, well there is that, I guess."

She suddenly lost steam, deflating like a toy balloon. "Ron," she said quietly, "Please! The longer you go, the faster this will... take you. You heard Seth. If you don't stop soon, you're going to kill yourself... Please, please... don't... Please... just... leave."

He heard missing words in her statement. Ah-ha. Maybe I'm finally going to find out what the problem really is.

"Can I do that? Can I just walk away, leave the whole division in turmoil because I've been sick, because I don't want to do it anymore? What are the consequences? What happens if something happens I should have been there to prevent and people die? Can I do that? Do you really want me to?" he asked with some heat. He regretted what he'd said, but so often she sat on those things eating her from the inside; sometimes their arguments were the only way he could get her to loose those things so he could understand on the outside.

Her glare would melt metal, let alone his heart. "Yes, you can. You've already trained them. They're ready to take over. Marcus says that after... how close you came to... they've been begging you to retire for months. Bah! You're the one who can't let go."

There's those missing words, again. He said tiredly, "It's my... life... Hermione. I have so many years invested... it's just so hard."

Angrily, she retorted, "It's not just your life. It's mine, too. What about my investment... our investment. Damn it, Ron, haven't you figured it out yet. You're everything to me. You're all I have left. If you go... " she finished on a whisper.

"If I go..." he prompted gently.

In a small voice, she cried, "I'll be... alone. I don't want to be alone. Oh gods, it was so hard to lose half my soul when Draco died. How can I ever go on if you take the other half? There won't be anything left for me." She started crying, her face buried in her hands.

He held her shaking body as she sobbed, his mind in a whirl. Afraid? His Hermione was afraid? He'd never seen her this way. She was always the strong one, always the fierce one. He was the one with all the secret inner fears he never let out. It rocked him. She needed him to take away her fear? How?

Then he remembered the note... something Harry had said. Damn it! Why can't I remember things like Hermione or Severus? Severus? That's it! He closed his eyes, resting his head on Hermione's and concentrated. ...he's started to bring me home... Bring him home? Bring her home? Then he realised what it meant... what he could do to assuage her fears.

"Hermione? You're right. I'm not the only one in this relationship. I'm sorry... I didn't mean to cause you any distress. I'll go there tomorrow and tender my immediate resignation."

This didn't get the desired result. If anything, she started crying harder. "Hermione, hush," he said rocking her. "Please, Hermione, it's important. I need you to listen to me."

He could feel her trying to get it under control and continued holding her tight. "Hermione, I'm scared, too. I don't know any more than you what to expect and I admit, I've been more worried about what will happen to me rather than you and for that... I am sorry. I never meant to hurt you. Please stop crying; you know I can't stand to see you cry. I love you."

She sniffled and rubbed her face in his robes like a little girl.

"Other than knowing I'm going to die--sooner than later, it seems--the only thing I'm reasonably certain of is that there's no underworld to worry about and all I have for proof is a letter from a dead man. Even Witches Weekly wasn't interested!" He felt her smile... just a bit. "I don't have many answers, but Dana had it right: we face what we face when we face it."

Hermione hiccupped. "We're such Gryffindors aren't we?"

They laughed precariously.

Rubbing her back, Ron racked his brains for the right way to express what he wanted to say. He played the scene in his mind a few times to ensure he had it just right; he'd only get one chance. He took a deep breath before speaking. "Hermione? Severus came for Harry, right?"

She nodded looking down.

"And we share the same bonds they do, right?"

She raised her face, her eyes questioning.

"And I've never broken a promise, have I?"

Shaking her head, she lowered it again and murmured, "No, you've never broken a promise to me. Or to Draco, or anyone else."

He lifted her face and, cupping her cheek, he kissed her tenderly, his lips lingering. "Look at me," he commanded gently.

Anxious brown eyes met calm, resolved blue eyes.

"I promise..." He put his face close to hers and breathed into her lips, "I'll come for you..." A gentle touch down her cheek. "I'll bring you home..." A tendril of hair gently moved from her face. "Just like Severus did for Harry. All right?"

She nodded and they sealed their new covenant with a kiss.

TBC